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From the Lips of the Sea 



From 

THE LIPS OF THE SEA 



CLINTON SCOLLARD 



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CiiiN^OJiT, New Yobk 

George William Browisting 

1911 



Copyright, 1911, by Clinton Scollard. 



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CONTENTS 

Page 

SEA MARVELS 9 

THE MIST AND THE SEA 11 

DIRGE FOR A SAILOR 13 

BAG-PIPES AT SEA 14 

THE WIND AND THE SEA 16 

THE TIDES 17 

A SEA ROVER 18 

THE MIST BARQUE 19 

A SEA SHELL 21 

NIGHT SONG BY THE SEA 22 

WILD GEESE 24 

A SEA CHANGE 26 

SAINT SEPULCHRE^S BESIDE THE SEA . 27 

SEA LYRICS 28 

DAWN, THE HARVESTER 30 

THE LILAC SEA 31 

A SAILOR AmD THE HILLS ..... 32 

SUMMER BY THE SEA 33 

DUSK AT SEA 34 

THE SPEECH OF THE SEA 35 

NIGHT BY THE SEA 36 

AUTUMN BY THE SEA 37 

MIST AT SEA 38 

A SEA SCENE 39 

MOONRISE BY THE SEA 40 

A SEA SONG 41 

A SYMPHONY OF THE SEA 42 



If thou wouldst win the rhythmic heart of things, 

Go sit in soUttide beside the shore, 

Giving thine ear to the eternal roar 
And every mystic message that it brings; — • 
Eddas of ancient, unremembered kings, 

And runes that ring with long -for gotten lore. 

All myths and mysteries from- the years of yore 
Ere Time grew weary on his journeyings. 

And more from that imperious sibyl, Sea, 
Thou mayest learn if thou wilt hearken well, 

When God's white star-fires beacon home the ships; 
The solemn secrets of infinity, 
Unto the inner sense translatable^ 

Hang trembling ever on her darkling lips. 



From the Lips of the Sea 



Prom the Lips of the Sea 

SEA MARVELS 

This morning more mysterious seems the sea 
Than yesterday when, with reverberant roar, 
It charged upon the beaches, and the sky 
Above it shimmered cloudless. Now the waves 
Lap languorously along the foamless sand, 
And all the far horizon swims in mist. 
Out of this murk, across this oily sweep, 
Might lost armadas grandly sail to shore; 
Jason might oar on Argo, or the stern 
Surge-wanderer from Ithaca's bleak isle 
* Break on the sight, or Viking prows appear. 
And still not waken wonder. Aye, the sound 
Of siren singing might drift o'er the main, 
And yet not fall upon amazed ears! 



10 Feom the Lips of the Sea 

The soul is ripe for marvels. great deep, 
Give up your host of stately presences, 
Adventurers and sea-heroes of old time, 
And let them pass before us down the day 
In proud procession, so that we who hear 
Dull bells mark off the uneventful hours 
May glimpse the bygone bravery of the world 
Now moiling in its multitudinous marts. 
Forgetful of fair faith and high resolve 
In the inglorious grapple after gold! 



Peom the Lips of the Sea 11 

THE MIST AND THE SEA 

The mist crept in from the sea 

Out of the void and the vast; 
And it bore the silver rain 
A shimmering guest in its train, 
And many a murmuring strain 

Of the ships that sailed in the past; 
Soft as sleep's footfalls be 
The mist crept in from the sea. 

The mist crept in from the sea 

And folded the length of the shore 
In the clasp of its mothering arms 
As though it would shield from harms; 
And lulled were the loud alarms, 
And lost was the rage and roar 
Of the surge, so soothingly 
The mist crept in from the sea. 



12 Fkom the Lips of the Sea 

The mist crept in from the sea, 

White, impalpable, strange; 
Full of the wafture of mngs, 
Of eerie and eldritch things. 
Of visions and vanishings 

Ever in shift and change; 
Silently, hauntingiy, 
The mist crept in from the sea. 

The mist crept in from the sea, 
And bode for a space, and then 

It heard the imperious call 

Of the deep, transcending all. 

And it knew itself as the thrall 
Of the world-old master of men, 

So, still as the dreams that flee, 

The mist crept back to the sea. 



Fkom the Lips of the Sea 13 

DIRGE FOR A SAILOR 

Beyond the bourns of tiino and sleep, 

Beyond the sway of tides, 
A voyager o'er death's darksome deej), 

His ship at anchor rides. 

He who from boyhood never knew 

A garden save the foam, 
Wliose only rooftree was the blue, 

At last has found a home. 

And what more fit than that the wave 

He loved through life to stem 
Should sing above his green sea grave 

This sailor's requiem! 



14 Feom the Lips of the Sea 

BAG-PIPES AT SEA 

Above the shouting of the gale, 

The whipping sheet, the dashing spray, 

I heard, with notes of joy and wail, 
A piper play. 

Along the dipping deck he trod, 
The dnsk about his shadowy form; 

He seemed like some strange ancient god 
Of song and storm. 

He gave his dim-seen pipes a skirl 
And war went down the darkling air; 

Then came a sndden subtle swirl, 
And lo^^e was there. 

What were the winds that flailed and flayed 
The sea to him, the night obscure? 

In dreams he strayed some brackened glade, 
Some heathery moor. 



From the Ljps of the Sea 15 

And if lie saw the slanting spars, 
And if he watched the shifting track, 

He marked, too, the eternal stars 
Shine through the wrack. 

And so amid the deep sea din, 
And so amid the wastes of foam, 

Afar his heart was happy in 
His highland home! 



16 FiiOM THE Lips of the Sea 

THE WIND AND THE SEA 

Never the long wind dietli, 

Nevei% never, 
But siglieth, crietli, 
In its old endeavor. 

Where the shifting sand and shingle 
Meet and mingle, 
And the lifting land and the surge of the waters sever ! 

Never the long wind faileth, 

Never, never, 
But still availeth 
In its old endeavor; 

Mortals, the changeful-hearted, 
May be parted, 
But the wind and the sea are wedded forever and ever I 



Fkom the Lips of the Sea 17 

THE TIDES 

Through rush and reed 

The long, strong tides recede, 

Jostle and surge, 

And toss and urge, 

And foam and merge, 

AVhere lily roots shine bright like bronzen brede. 

^^ Haste! haste!" 
That is their cry; 
Back to the mother waste 
They fleet, they fly, 
Again to be embraced — 
Again to be a part 
Of that great heart! 

As set the tides, so we, 

After the stress and roar 

Along life's shore, 

Shall one day set toward the eternal sea ! 



IS Feom the Lips of the Sea 

A SEA EOVEE 

The breakers dash, the breakers boom, 

Upon the beaches ceaselessly; 
Beyond the line of flying spume 

Stretch weltering wastes of sea. 

There gray gulls hold their loud carouse, 
The four great winds rejoice or mourn, 

There go deep barques, with plunging prows, 
On far adventures borne. 

That one, with streaming pennon, seeks 
The golden gates that guard the morn, 

That one the perilous island peaks 
Beyond the stormy Horn. 

My fancy sails with each and all, 

Unleashed, untrammeled, unconfined; 

There is no bond, there is no thrall. 
Can chain the roving mind! 



From the Lips of the Sea 19 

THE MIST BARQUP] 

Over the wave-rim faint and far 
(Spectral sail and ghostly spar) 
Through the mist-banks a vessel glides 
Eiding the ridge of the tossing tides. 

Is it Van der Decken again, 
Scourge of the sea, with his evil men, 
Come to wreak some murky spell 
Out of the yawn of the gulfs of Hell? 

Thus it seems that the craft might be, 
With its shifting shroud of mystery, 
Forth from the unknown weirdly cast, 
Into the unknown fading fast. 

Now no sign of it near or far, 
Spectral sail or ghostly spar! 
Yet shall I dream of it sliudderingiy, 
Vanished, eldritch ship of the sea, 



20 Fkom the Lips of the Sea 

Fearful lest some barque be borne 

In wake of the wraith (ah, hearts that mourn !) 

Through the power of its fatal spell 

Into the yawn of the gulfs of Hell. 



From the Lips of the Sea 21 

A SEA SHELL 

You speak to me 

Of the long plunge and welter of the sea ; 

Likewise you are 

Oracular 

Of its low melody. 

You voice its laughing moods, 

Its lyric interludes, 

Its secrecies, its sorceries, its mysteries, 

Its tragic histories. 

Aye, all that it has breathed, may breathe, shall breathe, 

You unto me bequeath; 

Thus am I made the fair inheritor 

Of that rare essence of trne harmony 

Yv^hich many a land-girt exile hungers for, — 

The sea! 



22 Feom the Lips of the Sea 

NIGHT SONG BY THE SEA 

Wind and rain are at the pane, 

Shrilling, drumming without cease; 
And the breakers' loud refrain 

Gives the shuddering heart no peace. 
Lord of all the things that be, 
Pity Thou the souls at sea! 

Snugly roofed with warmth and glow, 

And encompassed soft by sleep, 
Little we land-dwellers know 
Of the terrors of the deep. 
Lord, in Thy sweet charity. 
Pity Thou the souls at sea! 

On the smiling face of morn 

Sure are we to gaze again; 
What of those poor waifs forlorn 
Furrowing the untracked main? 
Lord, in their dire need of Thee, 
Pity Thou the souls at sea! 



From the Lips of the Sea 23 

Although riven be the rail, 

Snapped the shroad and rent the mast, 
May they into harbor sail, 
All their perils overpast! 
Lord, in Thy compassion, be 
Pilot to the souls at sea ! 



24 From the Lips of the Sea 

WILD GEESE 

Along the ocean's shingly edge, 

Athwart the turquoise sweep of sky, 

The wild geese in a winged wedge 
Go darkling by. 

From far lagoons be-plumed with palm, 
By cove and cape, bj^ bluff and bay, 

Through depths of storm, through vasts of calm, 
They speed their way. 

The pharos flashes on their flight; 

They do not heed its beckoning beam; 
The great North, stretching weird and white. 

Lures like a dream; 

Lures, and they answer to the call; 

Charms, and they yield them to the spell, 
Moved ever by a subtle thrall 

Inscrutable. 



From the Lips of the Sea 25 

Do you not feel it, comrade, too. 

The inescapable delight, 
The mounting rapture, that bids you 

Take vernal flight? 



26 Feom the Lips of the Sea 

A SEA CHANGE 

Night-long I heard the poignant undertone, 

The interminable sobbing of the sea ; 

And now that morn breaks dim and dolorously 
I mark the riotous surges landward blown, 
Tempestuous and towering, and hurled prone 

Upon the stark sand reaches; and the glee 

Of the mad wind, its maniac monody, 
Mingles with ocean's dithyrambic moan. 

Not so yestreen, when westward flamed the sun, 
Flinging athwart the waves a lustrous path, 

Tinging the sky with colors rich and strange! 
The black night wrought this mystery of wrath, 
This mood demonic (reason seems there none), 
This weird and inexplicable sea change! 



From the Lips of the Sea 27 

SAINT SEPULCHRE'S BESIDE THE SEA 

The new moon marked the twilight hour, 

A night- jar quavered eerily, 
And swallows circled round the tower — 

Saint Sepulchre's beside the sea. 

The ivy clung, the iv^'^ climbed, 
The wilding rose twined tenderly. 

And Time, the overlord, sublimed 
Saint Sepulchre's beside the sea. 

Below, the surge, the solemn surge, 
Murmured and moaned imceasingly. 

For all its golden past a dirge — 
Saint Sepulchre's beside the sea. 

And love and hate were here as one ; 

Life blent with death harmoniously; 
'Twas beauty in oblivion — 

Saint Sepulchre's beside the sea! 



28 Feom the Lips of the Sea 

SEA LYEICS 
I 

We heard the breakers clash and boom; 

We saw them plunge and writhe and rise, 
And toss great flakes of ashen spume 

High toward the ashen skies. 

Out of the welter of the east 

One gaunt barque like a spectre bore; 

The mad wind trumpeted, then ceased, 
Then trumpeted once more. 

A mist crept landward, the spent wraith. 

Of tempests raging far a-lee; 
Then day died like an outworn faith. 

And night fell on the sea. 



I^OM THE Lips of the Sea 29 

II 

Overhead, the iridescence of the stars, 
Ray blending softly with refulgent ray; 

Below, above the harbor's hidden bars, 
The crumbling iridescence of the spray. 

Before, a beacon flashing level lines, 

Seemingly poised upon the far sea-verge ; 

Behind, the night wind in the oaks and pines, 
Crooning in answer to the crooning surge. 



30 Feom the Lips of the Sea 

DAWN, THE HARVESTEE 

The purple sky has blanched to blue 

With freaks and streaks of rose and fawn, 

While on the rolling meads of sea 

Gleam the gold footsteps of the Dawn. 

What harvest, think you, will he find 
Whither he sets his feet to roam? 

Upon that boundless beryl plain 
Only the lilies of the foam! 



From the Lips of the Sea 31 

THE LILAC SEA 

A cool wind took me by the hand 

xlnd led me on beguilingly, 
Until before me, broad and bland, 

Shimmered the lilac sea. 

Great gulls, with mauve upon their wings, 
And cries that lingered hauntingly. 

Hovered, with graceful flutterings, 
Above the lilac sea. 

The curving shore-line had the gleam 

Of amethyst; it seemed to me 
The ships were all like ships of dream 

Upon the lilac sea. 

And naught was real, or near or far. 

And yet I have the memory 
Of twilight, and the vesper star, 

Hung o'er the lilac sea. 



32 Fkom the Lips of the Sea 

A SAILOR AMID THE HILLS 

What does he hear in dreams? The surging wind, 
Its long-drawn cadence, its wild harmony, 

A mighty harp of infinite strings designed, 

Whose sonnd to him seems sweet immeasurably? 

Nay, nay, but through the spaces of his mind, 

Plangent or pleading, loud or low-defined. 
The ever-haunting murmur of the sea! 



From the Lips of the Sea 33 

SUMMER BY THE SEA 

This is a song of sninmer by the sea, 

Of surge-prof undos chanted o'er and o'er; 

Of ancient wrath and immemorial glee, 

And of the ships that sailed and come no more. 

This is a song of summer by the sea, 
Of half-forgotten runes made long ago, 

Of moon-wrought marvel and of mystery, 
Of glamor — of the glow and after-glow. 

This is a song of summer by the sea. 

Of subtleties of change, of strange unrest; 

Of dreams unfathomable that form and flee 
Like drifts of mist above the ocean's breast. 



34 Prom the Lips of the Sea 

DUSK AT SEA 

Dusk, like a moth of violet wing, descends 

Upon the beryl bosom of the sea, 

And in the sky's serene immensity. 
Where the impalpable rose of sunset blends 
With pearl and purple, shine the sailor's friends, 

God's blessed beacons twinkling timorously. 

Then brighter, each in its divine degree. 
To where the enrapt range of vision ends. 

When dusk droops dark o'er life's uncertain seas, 
Closing our day, deep-shadowing the sun, 
And we go forth across death's pathless foam, 
May we have stars more stedfast e'en than these, — - 
Burning above, for us to gaze upon. 

Both light and guide on the long journey home. 



Fkom the Lips of the Sea 35 

THE SPEECH OF THE SEA 

All yesterday the sea was sapphire fair, 

And the waves told, with little rippling glees, 

Of ships that sailed, and then returned to bear 
Their golden argosies. 

But ah, to-day the sea is ashen gray, 

And ceaselessly has sobbed unto the shore 

Of those ill-fated barques that sailed away 
And came asfain no more! 



36 From the Lips of the Sea 

NIGHT BY THE SEA 

I woke in the black watches of the night 
And heard the low intoning of the main, 
A muffled heart-beat, an unceasing strain 

Of music keyed to dolor and delight. 

Now sorrow seemed ascendent, now the height 
Of rapture beat in the sublime refrain, 
Until the whole world's hajjpiness and pain 

Had echoed utterance while the dark took flight. 

Then in the sound of that reiterant surge 
I marked my own life's flux of bliss and woe — 
Grief's long drawn sigh and joy's exultant call; 
Till borne by dreams beyond the vast sea verge 
I touched those shores the blest immortals know 
Where youth and love have triumph over all. 



Fkom the Lips of the Sea 37 

AUTUMN BY THE SEA 

Still on the sand and shingle gleams the sun; 

Still an unclouded heaven arches o'er; 
And still the languid billows roll and run 

Down all the lengths of shore. 

Still there are hints of summer in the air, 
A sense of restfulness, of rapt repose; 

And from remote sea gardens, lush and fair, 
Rich attars like the rose. 

Still a soft haze of delicate hyacinth 

Broods o'er the sky-line, floating faint and far; 

Still on the edge of night's vast labyrinth 
Shines the clear vesper-star. 

Soon, all too soon, the spindrift and the spume, 
The legions of the surge that fleetly form; 

The gray, illimitable wastes of gloom — 
The thunderous caves of storm! 



38 Feom the Lips of the Sea 

MIST AT SEA 

The sea was mist-enwreathed at mom, 
A void unspeakably forlorn; 

Yet from the seeming barren gloom 
Beauty, the dream of the world, was born. 

A sudden wafture of wind breath. 
And lo, sun glories none gainsaith! 

Thus shall the wings of the soul emerge 
White from the chrysalis of death. 



From the Lips of the Sea 39 

A SEA SCENE 

From rim to shimmering rim the sea 
Is burnished like chalcedony. 

Tlie waves that set their lips to land 
Scarce make a murmur on the sand. 

The ships appear to poise between 
Two voids of opalescent sheen. 

Aye, here eternal calm seems set 
In bland beatitude, and yet 

A single potent hour, aye, less. 
Can change this placid loveliness, 

And cause, where life smiles fair and fain, 
The raging demon death to reign! 



40 From the Lips of the Sea 

MOONEISE BY THE SEA 

Over the sea-rim peered the pallid moon 

Out of a woven shroud 
Of twilight purple, while their mighty tune 

The breakers thundered loud. 

No comrade star, only the mystery 

Of that pale orb whose fire 
Through immemorial nights has seemed to be 

Fulfilled of dim desire. 

And while its wan light drenched the foam-hid coasts. 

To the low south wind^s sigh 
Methought the sad innumerable hosts 

Of lovers dead went by; 

And I was whelmed with sadness, with the sense 
Of the immutable pathos of the years, 

And how the sum of all love's opulence 
Must be obscured by tears! 



Prom the Lips of the Sea 41 

A SEA SONG 

Dolphins under and sea-gulls over 

The surge and shift of the dipping tide, 

And you, my rover, my blithe sea-rover, 
Sailing the path of the undenied. 

In dreams I follow you, my rover, 
Wide, for the ways of the sea are wide; 

Come back, come back when the voyage is over,-— 
Back to the heart of the long denied! 



42 From the Lips of the Ska 

A SYMPHONY OF THE SEA 

(GLOZE ROYAL) 

The surges sing in ceaseless monotone 

The songs and sagas of the long-ago; 
Many and mournful are the memories blown 

Across the tireless tides that ehb and flow. 

Lo, he who walks beside the wide sea-shore, 
And sees the waves unbreasted by the oar, 

And lets his thoughts repose on days long flown^ 
Will slowly o'er his dreamy vision feel 
A sweetly lingering sadness softly steal, 

And he will panse and listen to the moan 
The iterant billows make upon the sand; 
And all will seem to him a slumber-land, 

Where, through the long night-watches dim and lone^ 

The surges sing in ceaseless monotone! 



Prom the Lips of the Sea 43 

And in his ear the glorious myths of yore 
With all the rhythmic burdens that they bore, 

Will be retold, replete with joy and woe; — 
Ulysses' voyage will ring with epic peal, 
And the strange tale of Argo's wandering keel; 

Of high-banked Tyrian galleys will he know, 
Of Roman triremes, and of many a band 
The Vikings led from their far norland strand ; — 

Stories of strife and love in shine and snow, 

The songs and sagas of the long-ago. 

And there will rise within him, more and more, 
The strong desire to learn the utmost lore 

The great sea holds, that unto none is vshown ; 
And he will cry and bid the deep unseal 
Its sacred secrets, and to him reveal 

What stern power rules it from what unseen throne. 
But no vast shape will show a regnant hand, 
Unless, perchance, wan Sorrow by him stand; 

From Sorrow's pale, across the seas unsown, 

Many and mournful are the memories hloivn. 



44 Feom the Lips of the Sea 

O thou that hast, from decades gone before, 
Of bitter and of sweet the fullest store, 

Immeasurable sea, — ^in gloom and glow 
Our joy, our terror and our love,— we kneel 
At thy dark altar with a vain appeal ; 

Within thy mighty bosom, far below. 
Lie hid the mysteries of Him who planned 
The circling spheres that wheel at His command;—- 

Ah, Sea of Life, to one sure port we go 

Across the tireless tides that ebb and flow! 



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